The latest on 2007 World Series Of Poker

Source: Blabbermouth.net ()

Casey Ryback from Finland’s Get in the Pit TV conducted an interview with vocalist Brian Fair from SHADOWS FALL prior to the band’s December 14, 2007 concert in Helsinki. The eight-minute clip can be viewed below.

SHADOWS FALL recently received a Grammy nomination in the “Best Metal Performance” category for “Redemption”, the first single from the band’s newest release, “Threads of Life”. This marks SHADOWS FALL’s second Grammy nomination in the category, following the group’s nod at the 2006 awards for “What Drives The Weak” off the Century Media release “The War Within”.

The 50th annual Grammy Awards will be held at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Sunday, February 10, 2007.

SHADOWS FALL’s overview of its years as a Century Media recording act (before signing with Atlantic for the U.S. and Roadrunner for Europe), “Seeking the Way: The Greatest Hits”, was released in late October.

A SHADOWS FALL B-side from the “Threads of Life” sessions called “Stupid Crazy” is included on the “Resident Extinction” soundtrack, which was released on September 18 via Lakeshore Records. The film itself hit theaters on September 21.

Source: Market Wire (press release) ()

OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwire - Dec. 23, 2007) - The Ottawa Senators recalled today defenceman Lawrence Nycholat from the Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League (AHL) on an emergency basis to play against the Rangers in New York city tonight.

Nycholat, 28, was second in team scoring with Binghamton at the time of his recall with five goals, 18 assists and 42 penalty minutes in 31 games. He has three multi-point games this season, his last (one goal and assist) in a 4-3 win over Rochester yesterday (Dec. 22).

The Calgary native recorded two goals and six assists for eight points in one game with the Senators and 18 with the Washington Capitals in 2006-07.

Nycholat has played 28 career NHL games between the Senators, Capitals and New York Rangers. Undrafted, he was signed by Washington as a free agent on Aug. 9, 2005. Nycholat was also signed as a free agent by the Minnesota Wild, on Aug. 31, 2000 before being traded to the Rangers for goaltender Johan Holmqvist on March 11, 2003. He was acquired by the Senators on Feb. 26, 2007, from the Capitals for Andy Hedlund and a sixth-round pick in 2007.

Binghamton is tied for third place in the AHL’s East Division with 34 points from 15 wins, 12 losses, three overtime losses and one loss. The club’s next game is at home on Wednesday, Dec. 26 when they welcome the Albany River Rats.

Source: ABC News ()

It’s midmorning at Bon Appetit, and the beignets are long gone. Behind a Plexiglas wall, a cook is chopping vegetables for lunch. Music heavy with brass is blaring, and Chef LeRoy Crump Jr. is rushing about with cell phone in hand, periodically stepping outdoors to greet a passer-by and tout the special, a Cajun shrimp cream pasta.

The sign above his 2-week-old restaurant promises “Authentic New Orleans Cuisine and Spirits” in small-town West Virginia, 1,000 miles from the French Quarter.

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed his New Orleans home and restaurant, Crump traveled to Atlanta, then Daytona Beach, Fla. A chance encounter with a hotel guest who smelled Crump’s cooking lured him to Clarksburg, a town of 17,000 in a state he’d barely heard of.

He recalls driving through Virginia, lost in the dark. Shortly after a trooper told him he needed West Virginia, the next state over, he started seeing mountains. “I thought ‘Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?’” he remembers with a laugh.

And now? “I have customers now who say ‘If you ever try to leave, we will have the State Police stop you on the interstate. You will not get out of town.’”

Like other displaced Mississippi and Louisiana residents, Crump has taken root in an unlikely place, bringing along the tastes of home and the ability to share them. From Nevada to West Virginia, professional and amateur chefs alike are sharing Cajun and Creole fare with folks who still consider it exotic.

“At first, they couldn’t pronounce things,” jokes Darren Indovina, who fled Bay St. Louis, Miss., and opened the Bayou Lunch Box in Monett, Mo., population 7,400. “They’d say ‘I want that big sandwich with the big name,’ and that was the muffaletta. But I can honestly tell you that now they can all say it.

Indovina, a former electronics technician, lacks the supply connections to offer delicacies like crawfish, so he sticks with shrimp, oysters and catfish, and …

Source: Houston Chronicle ()

PRETORIA, South Africa
— President Thabo Mbeki, humiliated by losing the contest to lead the country’s ruling party, on Friday ruled out the possibility of early elections and said it would be business as usual for his government.

Mbeki said he had no plans to leave office early, even though African National Congress delegates snubbed him and most of his allies in voting for party posts this week, backing controversial new party leader Jacob Zuma, Zuma’s loyalists and others with leftist constituencies.

“I would expect the government to serve its term until the elections in 2009,” Mbeki said at a news conference at government headquarters in Pretoria — his first public comments since he was trounced by Zuma.

Mbeki, 65, appeared relaxed, cracking jokes with journalists despite the defeat that leaves him with no official position in the party he joined when he was 14.

He said there would be no change in his government’s policies even though the 86-member National Executive Committee lurched to the left, with trusted lieutenants like the country’s deputy president, defense minister and senior Cabinet ministers ousted.

Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikezela-Mandela, who remains popular among leftists and the disaffected despite criminal convictions, topped the list of national executive body members with 2,845 votes when results were announced early Friday. She drew more support in Thursday’s voting than sitting Cabinet members, and over 500 votes more than Zuma received earlier in the week in the race for party president.

As ANC leader, Zuma is in line to be its presidential candidate in 2009, and would likely win, given the broad support the ANC enjoys. But the possibility of a corruption trial could mean political turmoil ahead for Zuma, the ANC and, potentially, the country.

The country’s top prosecutor said he has enough evidence to charge Zuma in a bribery case. Zuma complained he was being …

Source: ABC News ()

Bill Parcells signed a four-year contract with the Miami Dolphins to become the team’s executive vice president of football operations, according to a Dolphins source.

Parcells faxed the contract to the team. The Dolphins are expected to make a formal announcement Thursday afternoon.

Parcells will finish his duties as an ESPN analyst this week, appearing on ESPN Radio Primetime Friday at 7 p.m. ET. His final work for the network will be as part of Monday night’s Denver-San Diego coverage.

The move was swift and somewhat surprising. Parcells was on the cusp of accepting a job to rebuild the Atlanta Falcons, then rebuked them Wednesday afternoon — having apparently struck a deal with Miami.

So, for the second time in less than a week, an off-field story is dominating the conversation at Miami’s training complex.

The first revelation came last Friday: Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga had been in talks about selling the team for about $1.1 billion, although it seems that deal has since unraveled and there’s no immediate plans to sell even a portion of the franchise.

And now this: Parcells, who previously coached the Giants, Patriots, Jets and Cowboys, is set to return to the NFL.

Parcells’ return didn’t seem to be a surprise in Dallas, where he retired as coach after last season.

Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones, the son of Dallas owner Jerry Jones, said Parcells was always intrigued “not just in the coaching part, but putting the team together, running the organization, trainers to fields to scouting department. It was always a huge interest to him.”

With his team mired in the longest playoff drought in franchise history — six years and counting — Huizenga has long sought different ways to end that streak.

In January 2004, he hired Miami’s greatest player, Dan Marino, as vice president of football operations, a job created just for him. Marino resigned from the loosely …

Source: Houston Chronicle ()

NEW YORK
— A federal court on Wednesday approved Calpine Corp.’s bankruptcy-reorganization plan, a move that will allow the energy company to exit Chapter 11 protection early next year after a two-year restructuring.

Judge Burton Lifland of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved the plan that sets Calpine’s postbankruptcy value at $18.95 billion and would repay unsecured creditors more than 90 percent on their claims. Calpine’s current shareholders will receive warrants to buy up to 10 percent of shares in the reorganized company.

Liland also authorized Calpine to auction off a partially-completed power plant in Fremont, Ohio, that has cost the company $304 million to build so far and would cost another $150 million to complete.

The plant, which will be a 707-megawatt gas-fired electricity generator when completed, is only 70 percent finished, and Calpine has said its future economic value is "highly speculative."

At Wednesday’s hearing, Lifland praised the lawyers and professionals who worked on the massive restructuring and managed to ink a last-minute deal to avoid a battle over Calpine’s reorganization plan.

"This case is a poster-child for quality of advocacy," he said.

The company earlier this week cut a deal with the committees representing its unsecured creditors and shareholders to fix a value for the company and give the shareholders a recovery in the case.

Calpine, the unsecured creditors and shareholders were at odds over the company’s valuation. The shareholders insisted the company would be worth about $24.4 billion, $5 billion more than the company’s own estimate. Settling on the $18.95 billion valuation allowed Calpine and the shareholders, who were opposing the company’s reorganization plan, to avoid a drawn-out battle that could have delayed the exit from bankruptcy.

The unsecured creditors agreed to forgo a small portion of their recovery so the …

Source: Sun-Sentinel.com ()

Gusmao Stripped of Pan Ams Medals

By Associated Press

3:06 PM EST, December 18, 2007

Article tools

E-mail

Share

Digg
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Fark
Google
Newsvine
Reddit
Yahoo

Print

Reprints

Post Comment

Text size:

MEXICO CITY - Brazilian swimmer Rebeca Gusmao and three other athletes must return their Pan American Games medals because of doping.

Gusmao, who tested positive for testosterone just before the July games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was stripped of two gold medals, one silver and one bronze.

The Pan American Sports Organization also is taking away the silver medal won by Colombian cyclist Libardo Nino Corredor; the bronze won by Brazilian weightlifter Fabricio Mafra; and the bronze of Nicaragua baseball player Pedro Rayo Rojas.

Nino Corredor tested positive for the banned substance EPO, Mafra for testosterone, and Rayo Rojas for the banned anabolic steroid boldenone, PASO said.

Rayo Rojas’ Nicaraguan teammates were not stripped of their medals.

Gusmao, one of Brazil’s top swimmers, won the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle races, both in Pan Am Games records. She is being investigated by local authorities on accusations her urine samples were altered.

Gusmao’s Brazilian teammates in the 400 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay also will have to return their medals.

Venezuelan swimmer Arlene Semeco, who finished second to Gusmao in the 50 and 100 freestyle races, will earn the gold in both events.

More articles

subscribe, click here.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, …

Source: CNNMoney.com ()

(Updates throughout with company spokesman comment, background.)

By Dinah Wisenberg Brin

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Drug wholesaler Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH) has notified customers that the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency suspended the company’s license to distribute
controlled substances from a third distribution center.

In all three cases, the DEA cited problems with the centers’ distribution of
the narcotic pain reliever hydrocodone, known commonly as Vicodin, a Cardinal
spokesman said. The suspensions prohibit the distribution of any controlled
substances from the three centers, the spokesman said.

Cardinal, based in Dublin, Ohio, wrote to customers of its Swedesboro, N.J.,
pharmaceutical-distribution center last week that the DEA would suspend the
license to distribute controlled substances from that facility effective Dec.
13.

Cardinal didn’t issue a news release about the latest suspension, which
followed its recent announcements that the DEA was suspending its licenses to
distribute controlled substances from its centers in Auburn, Wash., and
Lakeland, Fla.

The company operates 25 pharmaceutical-distribution centers.

The DEA, in an order to Cardinal suspending the Auburn license, said the
company had failed to maintain effective controls against the diversion of a
particular controlled substance, citing the sale of hydrocodone to a pharmacy
that allegedly dispensed excessive amounts of the drug based on illegitimate
Internet prescriptions.

The DEA alleged in a news release last month that Cardinal, through its Auburn
facility, was selling large quantities of hydrocodone to a Burlington, Wash.,
drugstore that was engaged in schemes to dispense controlled substances based on
illegitimate prescriptions.

In spite of a DEA warning about rogue Internet pharmacies, Cardinal’s Auburn
distributed nearly 18 million dosage units of hydrocodone to retail
pharmacies in the first nine months …

Source: Monsters and Critics.com ()

Print
Email
RSS
Talkback

US News
Rudy Giuliani rallies supporters in Florida

By M&C US News
Dec 16, 2007, 19:14 GMT

GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani spoke in Florida and reiterated his campaign themes.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gestures as he participates in the Des Moines Register/Iowa Public Television Republican presidential debate in Johnston, Iowa, USA, 12 December 2007. The first political test of the 2008 will be the Iowa caucus on 03 January 2008. EPA/ANDREA MELENDEZ / POOL
NBC reports that Giuliani focused his remarks on what the country would do after four or even eight years of his presidency. Naming several issues, he suggested the American call was to “get it done.”
“What America needs in 2008 is a proven leader who will get things done,” he said. “I’ve been tested, I’m ready, and the time is right now.”
His new theme is simply, “Tested. Ready. Now.”
At one point, amid cheers of “Ru-dy, Ru-dy” Giuliani paused and said: “If you keep doing that, I’m gonna stop giving this speech and I’m gonna go out and play football.”
It also was one of the most lavish events his campaign has produced. The convention center here featured three video screens, and an introductory film showcased Giuliani’s career highlights. The 300 audience members were constantly on their feet, and the campaign provided multiple platforms for cameras.
NBC reports that Giuliani spoke of “school choice, curbing illegal immigration while increasing legal entry, and national security. He also took a new swipe at the Democratic candidates. ‘The Democrats running for president seem to want a nanny state,’ he said. ‘They want to run your life from the cradle to the grave. We don’t want that kind of state. Americans like a country that puts reliance on individuals, on what they can do, what they can accomplish.’ ”

Sphere: Related Content

Talkback

There …

Source: Boston Globe ()

Huckabee leads Republicans in South Carolina poll

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee waits to speak at a forum on health care at Des Moines University in Des Moines, Iowa December 12, 2007.
(REUTERS/Keith Bedford)

Email|Print|
Text size
–
+

December 14, 2007

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took the lead for the Republican nomination in the early-voting state of South Carolina in a poll released on Friday that mirrored his rapid rise in national polls.Huckabee was the choice of 24 percent of South Carolina Republicans in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll taken December 9-12, up from 3 percent when a similar poll was conducted in July.Huckabee campaigned this weekend in the state, which holds its Republican primary on January 19, and voters placed him first when asked to name the most believable candidate.Actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson came in second with 17 percent.Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who leads in national polls for the Republican nomination to contest the November 2008 presidential election, saw his support cut nearly in half from 30 percent in July to 16 percent.Giuliani tied with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who also had 16 percent.Sen. John McCain, who also campaigned in South Carolina this week, came in fifth with 13 percent, down from second place in July, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul polled 11 percent.The sampling error for Republican primary voters was 4 percentage points.The same poll showed that Sen. Hillary Clinton leads the South Carolina race for the Democratic nomination in the presidential election with 42 percent. But the contest has tightened with Sen. Barack Obama at 34 percent, up 7 percent since July.Obama held a rally for around 29,000 people in Columbia, South Carolina, last weekend where he introduced by television talk show diva Oprah Winfrey, who is campaigning for him.The rally was attended …